Actually my original post was to dead about his blanket statement about "the state of incarceration being the 38th largest state", which I thought basically stated that all incarceration is bad for society and then I got into a discussion saying that tough law and order mayors such as Guiliani have brought crime down.
You will recall that this thread is about marijuana. Do you think it is a good thing to lock up a 92-year old woman to "send her a message?"
Marijuana is against the law and she has been on probation four times before. You can debate if marijuana should be legal or not. You think that marijuana should be legal, I don't. I beleive that marijuana is a gateway into the drug culture.
But that brings me back to my Guiliani arguement. Guiliani cracked down on small and minor crimes and that in turn brought down rates of major crimes and you can't argue against that success. So yes if grandma is being a 4 time offender, yes she should go to jail, IMHO
Surely you must realize that Grandma's customers will find another source. The supply will always be filled.
"Closing the borders" with the War On Terrorism has had no effect as most marijuana consumed in this country is now produced here. The only way to eliminate drug crime is to eliminate drug laws.
Millions of people over thousands of years have enjoyed the effects of marijuana. The damage has been far, far less than from alcohol; indeed, less than from aspirin.
The only damage to our society, and specifically our Constitution, that can be attributed to marijuana comes from the corrupt War On Drugs.
Crime went down in pretty much every major city in the US during Guiliani's term. A good economy, and less 15-30 year olds in the population tends to have that effect. I know it's hard for you to believe, but crime rates have many, many, many influences, and trying to pin it on one influence is near sighted at best, idiotic at worst...